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Job Title: Museum Educator
Type of Company: I work for a museum in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Education: BS, Biology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill •• MA, Zoology, North Carolina State University
Previous Experience: I worked in a lab for three years before joining a small museum as educator and curator of animals. From there I became City Naturalist. I went back to school, earned my Masters and worked as an Education Specialist for the state Parks and Recreation Division. I recently transferred to my job at the museum.
Job Tasks: My primary responsibility is to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Living Conservatory, a dry tropical forest habitat. Within this habitat we have several live plants and animals that need care. I have two full-time employees who work for me and do much of the hands-on work.
The exhibit is open to the public and we lead groups of visitors through. I have volunteers who work as docents, leading the visitors through, but I frequently work the door and interact with the visitors. I also supervise the volunteers.
When not in the exhibit, I spend time in my office. We offer programs to school groups, so I spend time developing and marketing new programs and creating learning activities. I primarily teach to 5th-12th grade students. Our programs are called "Tropical Connections", because we want to help the students see the connection between the tropics and North Carolina. This brings relevance and purpose to the exhibit.
We also offer "Teacher Treks" -- opportunities for teacher to have a learning experience. Some of my time is spent developing and leading teacher treks. One teacher trek that I'll be offering this fall has to do with the forests of the world. Because my exhibit area is a dry tropical forest, I need to find ways to tie it into local habitat and make it relevant. The forests of the world "trek" is aimed at doing just that.
Because the conservatory is regulated by the USDA, there are permitting issues that I deal with on a regular basis. Also, because we keep live butterflies, I spend time dealing with butterfly vendors.
Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best parts of my job come when I am in the exhibit, interacting with the public. I love answering questions and seeing people, particularly kids, get interested and excited about the butterflies or the other animals we exhibit. I also really enjoy teaching our classes and seeing the students really make that connection between the tropics and North Carolina.
The parts of my job that I'm not so fond of are the administrative and supervisory parts.
Job Tips: Get outside and learn as much as you can about the natural world. Make connections; visit museums and parks. Work as an intern or a junior curator or get a summer job in your area of interest. Learn to be comfortable teaching and leading people. Jobs in this field are few and far between, so the more you network and the more experience you have, the better off you'll be.
Additional Thoughts: Everyone I know who works in this field has a passion for nature and/or education. No one gets into informal education for the money. You'll never become rich in this field -- we do what we do because it is something that is personally important to us. We are passionate about nature / education and we want to share it with others.
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